How about this Eddie Chiles, DO NOT go to the game..I am not a resident of Burton but I am supporting this team. I know most of the coaches and a lot of the players and their families and could not be prouder of that team. If I was able to go, I would be there to support them, not whining and complaining about how much it cost to go to the game.

Win or lose, I doubt they will miss you not being there. SO just stay home and listen to it on the radio for free.

Buy two Adult tickets at $12 each is $24. Two student tickets at $8 each is $16. Total of $40. PARKING is $15. Total now is $55. Round trip is 360 miles. At 20 mpg the cost for gas alone would be $18. One meal would be at least $32. Total of $50 for travel and meals. Total cost is over $100 for a family of four.

Traveling 180 miles one way will take about three hours. No early release from school. Thursday is a workday for many backers. To make the 7:30 start everyone would have be in the vehicle by 4:00., with the vehicle gassed up and ready. Plan on drive thru for your meal. No time to pullover and enjoy the family time and meal. The chance of rain is 50%, drive carefully because the last two hours will be at night, maybe in that rain. Run into the stadium and if all went well, you will just make kickoff. Hopefully you will not get wet from the rain. You can look across the field at the 2,000 or more Falls City fans that drove one hour to get to the stadium.

The game will be over about 10 or 10:30 pm. Load up for the three hour drive home at night with a 80% possibility of rain. Get home exhausted about 1 am. The next morning is Friday. School starts at the regular time. Work starts at the usual time. Attend school or work while dealing with the outcome of the game.

But at least those Falls City fans, there were more of them, got home before midnight and can have a good nights sleep for the next day. Lucky beavers!

But, you can justify the ticket prices and parking costs because the team got the opportunity to play in the Alamodome! What an experience! It was worth the $25,000 or so each team paid for the opportunity to play in that venue. Did each team get to keep their ticket sales and pay their share of costs from the proceeds? Or was the contract that all ticket sales would be totaled, then the costs of officials, stadium and the UIL’s fees come from the total? You better hope it came from the shared proceeds. And you know the parking fees were not part of the proceeds.

It is decisions such as this that are hard to defend. It is decisions such as this that give rise to the argument there are poor decisions made in athletic spending. Both teams are complicit. It is not illegal, immoral or anything close, it just makes you wonder about the priorities the Board has set for administrators in regards to spending.

Right, they would play on a weekday if they go to state, THAT is determined by the UIL, Burton nor any other school has a choice. In determining the site, the day, the time, the officials and how much you pay for a site, Burton had a choice. My point is Burton could have done better in site, cost and day.

The two coaches can decide on one site. The coaches can each choose a site closer to their town and flip. They can choose to include all the decisions on one flip. As an example, if I win we get to play in Alamodome, we play on Saturday, each school pays half, we split the gate, the proceeds are used to pay the UIL and officials and any remaining is deducted from the costs of renting the Alamodome, we get home and all that entails like scoreboard, seating, parking and locker room, we wear dark jerseys, the officials will be from San Antonio chapter. If we lose, we play at Texas State in San Marcos, each school pays half, we play on Saturday at 2 pm, proceeds split and pay cost to UIL and officials and rest is applied to rental cost, we get visitor and all it entails, the officials are from Austin Chapter.

Maybe that is the way it went. Maybe we lost the flip and FC got it all. I have not heard how the story goes.

My point is that someone from Burton administration should have refused to flip with the Alamodome on a Thursday as an option. I say Burton administration because in my experience sometimes the High School Principal or Superintendent is present to approve and sign the contract. My point was to express someone should have served as a thought of the hardship and cost of fans to get to the game. As Athletic Director, Coach Hodde was focused on the game arrangements, not the other things. If this site was agreed to, without a flip, then that is more disappointing.

That it was a Thursday game, in the Alamodome together is crushing. I could shrug okay to playing in the Alamodome, one time expense, great for the kids. If it was a Thursday game in Some place that required both schools to travel an hour and a half, I could shrug it off as a one time concession due to availability of a site.

Throw that in with the decision by the administration to not have early release or to have school the next day. Last year the district made accommodations for playoff games in volleyball and football. Why nothing at this juncture?

I mention the Board because they have no part in this decision because they have no policy or parameters in play to guide the administrators in their decisions. The Board members are left to defend this decision because they have subjugated themselves to rubber stamping decisions.

I myself have been a coach, I have been honored to be involved in matters such as these. I have refused to agree to the demands of a belligerent coach in agreeing to his demands and the UIL handled it fairly.

I have confidence in Coach Hodde in trying to provide the best opportunity for his players. I voiced my concerns as to why it concerns me. I am reconciled to the fact that it is going to happen. My reasons for expressing my opinion was in the hopes that some discussion is had among the Board and administrators to set parameters for future deliberation. I hope that Coach Hodde reaches out to other experienced coaches to determine if there were options he could have exercised to avoid another event such as this. If Coach Hodde agreed to this without complaint, I am left to wonder why? I may never know as I have no contact with him, but respect him from his work ethic, his staff and the teams he brings to contests.

Complaining was not the tenor I chose. But if that is the way it is taken, so be it. I was purposefully critical of the arrangements. My point was in the last paragraph. It is decisions such as this that give rise to the argument that there are poor decisions in athletic spending.

Because I “complain” does not make me any less a fan or less of a supporter of Burton ISD. My opinion is expressed in hopes of sparking discussion on avoiding, if possible, having to justify future decisions. I continue to support the Panthers. I wish them all the luck. I will be listening to the game.

The date unfortunately is up to availability. Many places, even high schools now, get stuck in these weird times.

All are going to be expensive unfortunately in this round.

And yeah – I think Hodde lost a flip plain and simple.

I wish he’d done home/home from last year. Then he’d been able to make more demands.

Then again – Burton MAY have gotten Edna two years ago though it’s closer equidistant, and FC using this as an excuse.

Hodde reminds me of TJ Mills of ‘90s Sealy High fame. I have friends who played for him and he did his best to ensure fairness.

Fought very hard for fair playoff sites, and tried to get the opponent to play title in Astrodome so the players could play on an NFL field. Won that argument all but second year.

He also had backers and sponsors help fund the site locations. I have wondered if Burton gets sponsors, but then again UIL May prohibit it now.

I look at it this way, can be even worse – one story my friends told me was Mills having to play in Beeville on a field that was flat out mud. George West demanded and picked it to gain an advantage – and won the flip.

Sealy still won but I do think that incident lead to a quality requirement or something for UIL approved playoff fields.